


Externality

by jacksgreysays (jacksgreyson), jacksgreyson



Series: The Six Paths of Tetsuki Kaiza [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2018-11-29 07:06:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11435700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacksgreyson/pseuds/jacksgreysays, https://archiveofourown.org/users/jacksgreyson/pseuds/jacksgreyson
Summary: All actions have consequences: some of them are unintended.Or, Tetsuki takes a chance, makes a friend, and changes a universe.(originally posted on tumblr)





	1. Chapter 1

Tetsuki wakes up from a dream so vivid and ferocious she gasps and jolts upright on her cot. There are no clouds this night, nothing to block the bright shining moon; the boxes of inventory in the room cast sharp, angular shadows on the floor.

Her heart beats furiously, achingly. There are tears on her face.

Between one blink and the next, she forgets what she had dreamed.

Her heart slows, as do the flurrying, wild emotions. Still, she gives herself a moment before drying her face, turning and swinging her legs off her cot.

The floor is cold beneath her feet, toes curling up in reflexive protest, but she stands nonetheless.

There is no more sleeping for her tonight.

Creeping down the stairs, she pauses at the spill of light coming from the makeshift kitchen of the store.

Hikari-san is awake then.

“So loud,” her boss chastises, not looking up from her book of accounting. There’s more black than red, but only just. “If this were wartime, you’d be dead.”

But she gives a nod to the empty seat across from her, and Tetsuki takes her up on the invitation. There is a still steaming teapot on the table and two cups. Tetsuki prepares one for herself and refills the other.

“So would you,” she says in response, belated, hesitant despite her attempt to banter–after all, Hikari-san is her boss and landlady both.

The woman gives a small, acquiescing smirk.

Neither of them look at her prosthetic leg, stiff and wooden and propped up against the wall but still within Hikari-san’s reach.

“Worried about tomorrow?” she asks, curt but not unsympathetic, the scratch of her pen a static, soothing sound.

Tetsuki pauses, considering. Yes, actually, though she hadn’t been thinking about it just now. She knows there’s no real reason to be so, it’s just another year at the Academy. Her final year–if all goes well, that is–and the most important, but just another year at the Academy all the same.

It’s a silly thing to be worried about, when a woman who fought in a war says it out loud.

“You’ll do fine,” Hikari-san says, more in a tone that brooks no argument than one outrightly encouraging, but Tetsuki has learned over the years how to interpret that subtle language.

She’ll be fine. Just another year, same as before.

Tetsuki hopes so.

* * *

 Mornings in Ueno General Store are an exercise in patience, frustration, and futility. Still better than what her mornings used to be like at the orphanage, but only just.

When most small business owners say they open whenever they want, they generally mean later in the morning, sun high in the sky, so they can get a few extra hours of sleep.

Hikari-san wakes up before the sun–opens the store at dawn hours before any of her competitors think to do so–and so Tetsuki must do the same.

Hikari-san is a strict taskmaster, rapid staccato orders from the storefront heard even up the stairs in the apartment turned makeshift stockroom turned both. Tetsuki carts down boxes of inventory to the rhythm of Hikari-san’s “don’t you dare drop those,” and “don’t use chakra with that box, they’re shock tags” and “check how many of the high grade soldier pills we have, I might have to order more, no not the generic brand, the Nara brand.”

It’s a living.

Once enough supplies are brought downstairs, she directs Tetsuki to put together the genin kits–basic bundles of kunai, basic food pills, bandages, and other things that non-clan Academy students or their parents can purchase without shinobi background and the knowledge included.

First day of Academy means a huge boost in sales for these bundles which is, of course, fantastic. The fact that she’s the one who has to assemble over a hundred of them herself is less so. If Tetsuki knew how labor intensive the kits were, she’d never have suggested them in the first place.

But it’s a quieter sort of busywork, repetitive and mesmerizing…

… until Hikari-san smacks her over the head with a stack of invoices.

“Ten minutes until classes start,” she says, nodding her head towards the door, “Off you go.”

Tetsuki scurries away, though not before catching the muted, exasperated, “Honestly, that girl.”

The bakery next door is Akimichi owned, not run–a branch of the original–but just as delicious. In exchange for delivering their paperwork to the Tower every morning, Tetsuki gets a free breakfast.

Yoshihiko-san, civilian through and through, but with strong arms from kneading dough gives her a smile as she comes in, skirting around the line.

“The two of you were at it again early this morning,” he says, before handing over a paper bag of still warm bread and a flour covered envelope due for the Tower.

She takes a curious sniff at the bag–savory and sharp, curry pan.

“Good nose,” he confirms, before clapping her on the shoulder, “Better get moving, you’re running late.”

She shoots a quick thank you his way before dashing off, self-deprecatingly amused at herself: how worried she had been in the wee hours of the morning, and yet now she’s on her way to being tardy for the first lesson.

Well, it’s unlikely she’ll miss too much.

* * *

 Dropping off paperwork to the Tower everyday makes her, if not a known quantity, then at the very least a face familiar enough to be allowed to walk through the lobby unimpeded. It’s more than she ought to expect, really–there are many cogs in this administrative machine and she is the most minuscule of a part.

Sneaking into her classroom is far more difficult, even if that is where she belongs.

Yanagi-sensei spots her immediately. Unsurprising, given he is a chuunin, and she’s not sneaking in to fool him so much as she’s trying not to be noticed or interrupt his lesson.

Beyond a tilt of his head, he doesn’t remark on her entrance though, which she is grateful for. Some students, when they’re tardy, get punished–standing outside with buckets of water in each hand or being tied upside down until their faces turn bright red–though generally they’re also troublemakers for other reasons.

Tetsuki tries not to make trouble; she can’t afford it.

Still, being late is not without drawbacks: her preferred seat, four rows back and nearest to the window, has been taken by someone else, and she catches looks from her classmates who already have wandering eyes.

She slinks into the nearest available seat–second row, closer to the wall, unfortunately–and doesn’t recognize the person beside her.

She’s taken aback for a moment, a flash of mortification–has she entered the wrong room? Is this the wrong class entirely?–before logic asserts itself.

No, Yanagi-sensei wouldn’t do that to her, and she did spot classmates she knows from her original cursory glance around the room; it’s just this one in particular that she doesn’t know.

The boy beside her gives a baffled look in return, before shifting his attention back to their sensei.

Following his lead, Tetsuki does the same.

She can solve the mystery later.

* * *

 After five years of being in the same class, Tetsuki is a little ashamed to say she’s only really on speaking terms with a few of her classmates.

It’s a matter of time, is all. Or scheduling, rather.

If she’s not at school, then she’s working. If she’s not working then she’s training. She’s quite behind some of her classmates: especially the ones who have the full support of a clan, tips and tricks passed down from older relatives who serve, generations of honing their members into efficient shinobi.

But even the ones from civilian families–those who don’t have to worry about where their next meal will come from, or how they’ll pay for their school supplies, or even just have an adult presence in their lives who put them first unconditionally–have advantages over her that she must work hard to compensate for.

It’s nobody’s fault. Not really.

Tetsuki is just one of many orphans of Konoha; a babe found in the rubble of the Kyuubi Attack’s aftermath.

TenTen is another.

Talking to someone who has the same background as her is just easier. Someone who understands what she’s going through, who knows what it’s like to crawl and claw and carve their way up and out. Perhaps it’s elitism of its own in a backwards, twisted way.

And also, Hikari-san orders kunai in bulk from the armory TenTen works at, so the two of them often see each other in a work setting. Passing off a storage scroll of kunai like a baton in a relay race or getting shooed away whenever the adults renegotiate prices.

Talking during taijutsu class–during the practice matches–isn’t outrightly forbidden, so long as it isn’t a distraction. But it’s pretty much expected. There’s only so many combinations of sparring partners available, after all.

After five years, even watching Neji Hyuuga stomp his opponent into the ground gets boring no matter how elegantly he does it.

Tetsuki leans in close–more out of politeness than any real attempt at concealment, if someone really wanted to listen they could–and asks about the four new students in their class.

Old students, TenTen corrects, from last year’s graduating class that failed to do just that. Determined and optimistic, Yanagi-sensei had said. Stubborn, foolish, a waste of his time, he didn’t need to say.

One shining example of that being Rock Lee who everyone knows can’t do even the basic three which requires the minimum amount of chakra. It’s no surprise that he failed. Just as it isn’t a surprise that he’d come back for more, a glutton for punishment. What he’s expecting to change in this year is a mystery to everyone.

There’s another boy and a girl, neither of whom seem remarkable in any way–not enough for TenTen to point out beyond a nod in their directions and their names.

But the final boy–short, blonde, and in eye catching orange–TenTen has more. “He’s younger than us.”

With a confused, prompting look, she continues, “He used to be at Enshoku with me, though he left before I did. I always thought it was because he got adopted out…”

At an orphanage such a thing is less a dream and more a miracle, both of them would know.

“… but he still has the same name as before.”

A second, more confused, prompting look. Why would getting adopted change someone’s name? That’s just asking for identity crises.

“Well, same names. He has the same surname.”

Which both clarifies things and brings up more questions. Why would someone with a surname be at an orphanage with TenTen? If they have a surname then they must have–a clan or a family or some trace of guardianship; a distant relative, a godparent, their parents’ teammates, a legal tie of some kind–someone who would take on a child rather than leave him to an orphanage with less than no support system.

Tetsuki is sure TenTen has had the same thoughts and, also, found no answers. It just doesn’t make any sense.

As Neji Hyuuga’s short lived spar comes to a close, TenTen concludes, “Naruto Uzumaki.”


	2. Chapter 2

There are two orphanages in Konoha: Enshoku House in the southwest–between the Hyuuga and Aburame holdings–and Ryokushoku Institute in the northeast–between the Akimichi district and what used to be Uchiha land.

Not that their proximity to cardinal clan territories have much influence on which orphans end up where, it’s just the easiest way to differentiate the two. That and the fact that most orphans from Enshoku tend to wear shades of red while those from Ryokushoku wear shades of green.

It must be a subliminal influence: Tetsuki certainly isn’t basing her fashion choices on nonexistent fond memories of the place.

Though perhaps that’s a bit harsh. Ryokushoku was hardly torture, and she knows that orphanages further from Konoha’s reach and subsidies aren’t as professionally run.

But maybe that was the problem–it was too well run, too clinical and cold and objective. They weren’t family, they weren’t students, they were barely even wards of the state–they were resources, potential products, and future soldiers. A mass assembly line of moldable children without anyone to care for their well-beings outside of what made them useful.

Technically, six year old orphans aren’t mandated to join the Academy, but if they haven’t been adopted by that point then there aren’t many options left: very few orphans show an aptitude for a strictly civilian vocation that would induce government sponsorship for Shougakkou. After that, frankly, between the red light district and urban legends of ANBU stealing children in the middle of the night, the Academy is the safest bet.

Her Academy file had her name as Ryokushoku no Tetsuki until she was ten, when she updated it along with her new address–moving out from the orphanage as soon as she could even remotely support herself. Her life path thus far is in no way unique, but at the very least she has heard of other stories.

None of that helps in figuring out Naruto Uzumaki’s situation.

* * *

 That first month, she doesn’t ask.

That first month, she doesn’t even talk to him.

It’s an interesting mystery, of course, but ultimately irrelevant to her everyday life; she’s mired in too much as it is.

The second and third months are much the same.

This final year of the Academy seems to be less teaching and more training–a narrow, but distinct separation between the two–forcing students to apply what they’ve learned over the years into actionable combinations. It’s one thing to know the standard hand signs and team formations, how to make wire traps and stealth genjutsu, but it’s another to use it in a class-wide six-way game of capture the flag while Yanagi-sensei and his assistant pelt everyone with blunted wooden kunai.

The other drills and assessments aren’t nearly as fun, but they are equally as likely to give bruises and headaches to everyone involved.

And as if that weren’t enough, it’s as if Hikari-san has taken Tetsuki’s dwindling free time and increasing exhaustion as some kind of permission. Or, worse, a challenge.

A chuunin war veteran, regardless of the years off the field and the prosthetic leg, will still handily smack down an Academy student without breaking a sweat. Tetsuki would prefer it if Hikari-san wasn’t so smug about it, but it’s not as if it is a surprise.

“That technique,” Tetsuki says between panting breaths, ignoring the dirt pressing into her cheek in favor of the coolness of the ground, “with the flashing light. What is it?”

Hikari-san smiles, teeth sharp and bright, “It’s my own invention. Maybe if you can last more than a minute against me, I’ll teach it to you.”

It’s more of a threat than an offer.

Along with the more physical, literal beating her into the ground, Hikari-san also involves her more with the operation of the shop:

Business to business trading verses customer transactions, quotas and market equilibrium. What the forms she delivers daily to the Tower are for, where that information goes–funneled to the Logistics Department, just a drop in the flowing river of data–the correlation of sales and Academy enrollment, decreasing demand of smoke pellets as preferences move toward flash bang tags.

Or so Hikari-san says. But the shop is just one data point and they are not the ones in charge of interpreting the information.

Still, Tetsuki’s dreams, if she has any, are filled with numbers in the night, masked and waiting to jump out at her armed with wooden kunai and bright red yarn.

And so the weeks slip by and she doesn’t ask.

She barely even manages to talk to TenTen, much less a boy she’s never properly met before.

In fact, that doesn’t even happen until the first trimester’s exam, when the students are really put to the test: a three day trial in the dense forest of Training Ground 53–the students given unique, secret objectives and told to survive without any teacher interference.

Maybe that’s what prompts her to approach him: not having to worry about the flat expression Yanagi-sensei sends his way being extended to her by association.

Alternatively, it might be the sabotage.

* * *

 Tetsuki would never claim to be a people person. She’s not charismatic, not naturally kind or generous. The closest she might get is relentlessly civil, and even that is more of a fault than a strength–manners aren’t exactly high on the list of criteria for a soldier.

Still, even if she is no miss congeniality, at least she’s not a total ass either.

For the exam, Tetsuki was dropped in the southern sector of the training ground, along with seven of her classmates. Some of them were given tokens of different colors, some of them were given armbands–again, in different colors–Tetsuki has neither.

Naruto Uzumaki has both: the armband in a purple so deep as to be nearly black, clashing harshly against his jumpsuit, and the token a shining silver.

He hides both of them immediately, even as the others with armbands dutifully put them on, but not so quickly that she doesn’t see.

The rest of her classmates begin to disperse, some of them volunteering their objectives out loud, though most of them shake out the same: those with armbands are to find and collect the token matching their color. Those with tokens are to defend theirs for the entire three days.

Tetsuki’s objective is to collect two different tokens; one copper, one silver.

Naruto Uzumaki doesn’t move, and neither does she.

The most obvious solution would be to fight for the silver token–she could take him in a fight. Has taken him, during class spars–he’s shorter and slower and has the sloppiest kata form she’s ever seen. She doesn’t even like taijutsu.

She could collect the token by force easily and be halfway done with her objective in the first ten minutes. But…

Why would she be put in the same sector as one of her targets right from the beginning? If this really were to test her abilities, wouldn’t it make sense to put him elsewhere–make her hunt him down instead of handing him over on a platter?

And why does he have both a token and an armband?

Yes, Tetsuki is not the friendliest person. She’s reticent and cynical and her default expression is, according to Hikari-san, cold and uninterested. Yes, she could fight for the silver token and be on her merry way…

… but she is a suspicious person and that’d be too easy.

Instead of challenging Naruto Uzumaki to a fight or even attacking him without warning, Tetsuki asks for the silver token.

The immediate rejection isn’t a surprise.

The considering, curious bargaining a few moments later is.

* * *

 In the dozen or so weeks that they’ve been classmates, Tetsuki has observed the following about Naruto Uzumaki:

He has sloppy taijutsu form.

He can never sit still during class.

Whenever teachers have to speak, look, or even think about him, they get the same flat expression on their faces like someone trying not to admit they have a stab wound and might need to go to the hospital.

He gets bored very easily.

He gets bored very loudly.

He is craftier than people expect.

“What do you want?” he asks, straightforward, which is another thing she’s noticed about him, never mind that it ought to conflict with that last one.

“What do you need?” she shoots back; information more powerful than any number of kunai.

“How about, I give you my token and you help me with my objective,” he says, the back and forth they have not quite like experienced merchants–nothing like what Hikari-san and TenTen’s boss do–but a childish mimicry of it. They way all children who spend more time out on the streets than in a home learn to do.

“How about you give me your token and tell me what your objective is and maybe I’ll help you with yours.”

“No way! How do I know you won’t just take it and leave?”

“I could just fight you for it. We both know I would win.”

“You’d have to catch me first. I can outrun ANBU.”

At this, Tetsuki hesitates. She’s not sure about the ANBU part–that’s a bit of a stretch–and outrunning isn’t the term she would use, but the only thing she knew about Naruto Uzumaki before he joined her class is that every so often he’ll pull an obnoxious, public prank and not even chuunin can track him down.

She’s already shown her hand by asking for the token. He’d know who, specifically, to avoid for the next three days–she might be faster than him in a flat out sprint or even have quicker reflexes in a fight, but if he loses her in these woods she probably won’t find him until after the exam is up.

She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the card with her objective on it. “I have a two parter,” she says, “You give me that token and help me with the other part of mine, and I’ll help you with yours.”

She doesn’t know yet if she can trust Naruto Uzumaki, but if she never gives it a try then she’ll never find out.

And plus, how bad could it be?

* * *

 Tetsuki stares at the card in her hand.

Not her card–with its sparse, two prong objective–but Naruto Uzumaki’s card and its impossible instructions.

“This is a third of the class,” Tetsuki says, brows furrowed in consternation, “This is impossible.”

Technically, Naruto Uzumaki’s objective is also only two parts. The first being “collect five armbands.” The second being “collect five tokens.”

Of course, taking their other sector mates as the norm–one token or armband each–that would be ten people.

“Why would Yanagi-sensei do this to you? This is impossible,” she repeats, dumbly, as if Naruto Uzumaki weren’t completely aware of what the instructions on his card meant.

Somehow his face twists into a combination of defiance and bitter, unsurprised resignation, shoulders hunched up protectively like a feral cat when confronted.

“Yeah, well, I’m still gonna try,” he mutters, but he doesn’t even sound convinced himself.

Awkwardly, Tetsuki hands him back his card, unsure what–if anything–she should say.

Life isn’t fair. Of course it isn’t. That’s one lesson she learned early on watching other children with parents, with family, with anyone beyond the impersonal reach of a government run orphanage. She knows that sometimes–no matter how hard you work, no matter how polite you are, no matter how much you really want it–life is unsympathetic.

Naruto Uzumaki knows this, too. An orphan just like her with the same scrawny, underfed and sallow look of someone who has to fend for themselves because there is no one else to fend for them. Life isn’t fair; it’s harsh and demanding and never about want or deserve or even need.

It’s never been so obviously targeted at her like this, though. Life isn’t fair because life is uncaring. This isn’t fair because someone is actively making it so–

“Here,” Naruto Uzumaki says, handing over both her card and his token. “One of us might as well pass this stupid thing.”

–and yet, something in him is still kind, still generous.

“Hey!” she says as he begins to walk away.

He turns back to look at her, confused.

“A deal’s a deal, right?,” she asks, bravado burbling up and out of some part of her that hasn’t gone completely cold and steely. “You help me, and I help you.”

This isn’t about being friendly, not about reciprocating kindness. It’s not even about honoring their flimsy deal, not really: life isn’t fair and nothing can change that–but there are two ways to respond.

Give up or fight back.


	3. Chapter 3

Immediately after agreeing on their alliance, Tetsuki and Naruto Uzumaki take to the treetops. A far enough distance away from each other that they won’t needlessly overlap in their search, but not too far that they can’t signal to each other to regroup.

Tokens first. They’ll be more difficult to grab.

The token holders are already on guard, know that they’re targets if not whose exactly–if they hole up successfully, hide away or build a strong enough camp, then there’s no touching them for the rest of the exam.

In comparison, armband wearers are the aggressors. They won’t expect anyone to attack them, safe in their knowledge that they’re the ones seeking not hiding. They can be put off for later, tomorrow even, when they’ve gotten complacent.

It’s only been an hour, two at most, since the exam officially began. It’s possible that some token holders haven’t yet settled down, haven’t yet found a defensible, concealable position.

Except for the three that started in the southern sector along with them, they don’t have much information to go on. Unlike the armband wearers, token holders won’t exactly mark themselves overtly, meaning the two of them may very well just have to accost everyone in hopes of getting a token.

And if it gets out that there are classmates without armbands ambushing people…

“How’s your henge?” Tetsuki asks, drawing close for their conversation–no need to alert everyone else by calling their plans out in the open–even as they maintain a steady pace to catch up with their classmates.

The grin Naruto Uzumaki gives is wide and sly, the epitome of a troublemaker.

Tetsuki feels herself smiling back.

A few hours later, when they spot a classmate alone and with no armband in sight, it’s easy enough to take him down, outnumbered and surprised as he is. Knocking him out, tying him up, and getting a sky blue token for their efforts.

Still, it’s her idea to disguise themselves so when he does wake up, word of what they’re doing won’t spread too fast. Or, at the very least, not correctly.

It’s Naruto Uzumaki’s idea on who they disguise themselves as.

She gives it until noon tomorrow before tales of Neji Hyuuga and Rock Lee working together wind their way through the ranks of the class.

* * *

 By the time the sunset hits, forest canopy already turning the training ground dark, they’ve managed to find two more tokens–flak vest green and pale, pinkish peach.

“Alright!” Naruto Uzumaki cheers, “We’ve got this!”

She nods her head in agreement but doesn’t say anything. It’s true that three tokens in the first day is a decent haul, a great step towards completing their objectives. But she also knows that it definitely won’t be as easy as both time and the exam march onwards.

The remaining token holders that haven’t been hit will have gone to ground. Finding them–and specifically whoever has the copper one Tetsuki needs–will be an exercise in diligence and patience.

And that’s not even including the consequences of when news spread that two people–even if they’re not the right people–are ambushing token holders even without the matching armbands.

“We need to find a place for camp,” she says, checking the sky once more. She’s not tired, but not everyone has as awful a sleep schedule as she does.

“I can keep going,” he protests, arms waving as if to prove how energetic he still is.

It’s not as if she doubts him, it’s just. “We’ll regret not finding a secure spot later.”

Konoha at night isn’t too different from Konoha during the day–it is a ninja village after all, a great machine that functions at all hours, every day–but the both of them, for all that they’re in the Academy to one day become shinobi, still have the same civilian diurnal mindset. The same hindbrain instincts of prey animals who know that it’s not the dark which is dangerous, but the predators who use it as cover.

He doesn’t outrightly disagree, but he does bring up, “Wouldn’t it be better to attack at night? Maybe everyone else is thinking of resting while it’s dark, too.”

That’s a good point.

She says as much, because it’s an easy acknowledgement and Naruto Uzumaki blinks in pleased surprise when she does so.

They strike a compromise: for now, while the lingering light of the sun still remains, and while they’re still strong enough to search for another classmate or hold off an ambush against themselves, they’ll find a secure spot for camp. In shifts they’ll rest for a bit, until later in the night, when everyone else is either asleep or pushing the limits of their energy.

That’s when they’ll go out, refreshed, and hunt down their prey.

They are at the Academy to become shinobi, after all, it’s time they prove it.

* * *

 The moon is but a sliver of light at the apex of it’s journey when she is roughly shaken awake. Reflexively she strikes out, fist meeting rough cloth over boney flesh.

Naruto Uzumaki gives a yelp, more out of surprise than any pain, and that places Tetsuki even better than the cool night air or the dirt floor of sleeping outdoors. That, she’s done before, but never where another person might happen upon her.

“Sorry, sorry,” they both gibber at each other, unused to company and all the more hyperaware for it.

“It’s been an hour and a half,” Naruto Uzumaki says, sheepishly, which she might have guessed for herself–unless they were being attacked or someone had stumbled into one of their traps, there’s no reason for him to wake her up.

“A little more gently next time,” she responds, shaking off the sleep.

“Yeah, I figured.”

Four hours of rest with a REM cycle each–the other on watch while the other slept–should have energized them enough for a midnight raid or, at the very least, a decent scouting.

Their traps they keep up–both to protect their makeshift camp and because, frankly, they’re pretty good and she’s impressed by Naruto Uzumaki’s ingenuity–though while it would be nice to catch someone in them, they can’t actually depend on it. Maybe they’ll catch a rabbit to supplement their ration bars.

They’ve been spiraling inwards rather than cut through the training ground in straight lines, their camp on the northern edge of the east sector. This outing they’re aiming for the center on the logic that the river bisecting the training ground would be an attractive place for those with armbands to camp–not considering that they might need more defensible positions.

Neither of them are so stupid as to think that they’re the only ones to team up: for everyone else, so long as their colors don’t match, there shouldn’t be any conflict. And considering that the two of them–who are are independent at best and friendless at worst–still managed to form an alliance, they wouldn’t be surprised if their classmates did the same.

After all, teamwork is Konoha’s most valued virtue.

They’re not expecting to find a group of eight settled together, a smokeless fire pit and bedrolls and camping gear and everything. How…

Is that a tripod with a hanging pot over their fire? Is that stew? What’s next, a tent?

… comfortable.

Not very well defended: the few traps are half-hearted at best, trip wires obvious and shining, and even the person on watch–only one, never mind they had more than enough people to do a two person watch in a three shift rotation–was staring into the fire and ruining her night vision rather than looking outwards where threats would come from.

Tetsuki wants to take them out so badly.

From the way Naruto Uzumaki practically vibrates beside her, he must feel the same.

But not yet. Foolish and audacious as their camp may be, it would still be eight to two, and in an outright fight no way would that end favorably for her much smaller team of two.

“Recon only,” she hisses to him, no matter how tempting–wait, what if this is a trap? After a few moments and no trap is sprung, she decides that that’s just her paranoia at work.

Together they make a count of the group–six armband wearers, one of them flak jacket green, and two probable token holders. No one particularly outstanding in any one area. One of the boys is better at taijutsu than either of them, but the Neji Hyuuga disguise ought to discourage that.

They observe for two shift changes–one watcher every hour, how… quaint–before the both of them decide to go back to their own, less comfortable but better defended, camp.

They’ve got a raid to plan.

* * *

 During her fourth year at the Academy, Tetsuki was brought in to T&I. A nerve wracking experience for anyone–T&I’s reputation being far from kind–because it’s designed to be so.

It’s especially awful for a ten year old who has no idea what she’s done wrong and why she’s being asked so many bewildering questions by a blonde man with a soft smile and lethally sharp eyes.

Beneath the layer of frenzied panic in her mind, Tetsuki was struck with the thought that no one would care if she disappeared. There was no one who would miss her, no one who would notice–or speak up if they did–just one of many Konoha orphans who mysteriously vanish.

She answered as truthfully as she could.

No, she does not know any Cloud nin.

No, she does not know anyone from Lightning country or of Lightning descent.

No, the boy she transformed into is not a real person.

He was just a boy that she imagined: when Yanagi-sensei told the class to practice their henge, with the condition that they couldn’t use anyone in the room as a template, Tetsuki was just completing the exercise.

Instead of transforming into someone she knew outside of the room–mostly because at that point, she didn’t really know people that weren’t also her classmates–she thought about that boy. Someone so opposite to her–dark skin to her pale, light hair to her dark, with a bright easy smile and an exuberance that couldn’t be overlooked.

She named him Ryouhei and imagined that maybe, in another life, they might have been friends.

Instead, she was brought to T&I and realized that she had none.

Naruto Uzumaki does not look like him, different shades and shapes and even the smile is different. But maybe–in this life even–they might one day be friends.


	4. Chapter 4

When Tetsuki wakes up again the dawn of the second day is beginning to creep through the sky, the clouds an increasingly more saturated lilac.

It’s a prettier sight than her partner’s jacket which has only gotten grungier after using his watch shift to further bolster their trap defense. Between the overt traps and the hidden ones she can kind of sense, she can’t figure out the safe path to exit–actually, she’s not sure there is a safe path to exit.

Naruto Uzumaki also presents her with two dead rabbits which he can barely look at. Apparently it’s one thing to know that they’ll make a good meal, it’s another to actually turn them into one. For now, she’ll let him turn away: he did good on catching them, she’s fine on being the one to clean and prepare them.

Next time, though, she’s tossing him in the deep end.

Stalking the bloated group of their eight classmates in the early morning is both more and less difficult than it was last night. Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say frustrating.

They’re all awake–which is something in their favor, at least–but they’re noisy and sluggish, stumbling around and yawning, rubbing at bleary eyes. They seem to be in dire need of some kind of leadership but also seem to be lacking–they begin arguing amongst themselves on their next course of action, something that goes on for at least a quarter of an hour, before someone sarcastically suggests a vote.

After a few more minutes of shouting, they end up actually taking that vote.

Between herself and Naruto Uzumaki there is no need for that much structure. Except for that first negotiation, they both know what needs to be done and incorporate the other’s suggestions. If there is a leader between the two of them, she thinks it might be her, but only because Naruto Uzumaki has the kind of impulse control that needs to be actively curbed.

Finally the group decides to split up–some members remaining at the camp, which will act as a home base for everyone, and others going out to look for corresponding tokens.

For a moment, Tetsuki thinks they might be spotted, that their classmates may just get their acts together and fight these two loners hidden not twenty meters away who have four tokens between them. Even halved, she doesn’t think she and Naruto Uzumaki can take on a concentrated attack so outnumbered.

Instead, the deployed half decides to… split themselves up again?

If she weren’t so baffled and grateful, she thinks she’d be disappointed. Instead, all she can think of is Hikari-san saying: if this were wartime, they’d be dead.

* * *

Four more armbands, two new disguises, and one unconscious classmate later, Tetsuki and Naruto Uzumaki enter the camp.

It’s a brasher plan than she’d have thought up on her own–certainly more risks involved–but she can’t say that some part of her isn’t absolutely eager to get it done.

Timing, mostly, will be the problem. And how close the group of eight are to each other.

A fuss raises as they enter the camp, not from who they appear to be, but from what their presence implies. Tetsuki tilts her head toward one of the bedrolls–which are all still out for some reason–and Naruto Uzumaki drops the classmate they knocked out earlier.

She barely holds back a wince. Maybe the classmate he’s disguised as is also that careless–or just personally dislikes the classmate they’ve brought in.

“We found him unconscious, by himself, no armband. We have no idea where Mina is,” Tetsuki starts, making her voice a little rougher, a little louder.

“What the hell?” one of the campers shouts, “Who would take Renji’s armband?”

Tetsuki shrugs.

After a few more exclamations from the campers, Naruto Uzumaki adds, “Isn’t Mina a Neji fangirl?”

Neither he or Tetsuki actually know–it just seemed like pretty decent odds and a way to bring up,

“I heard Neji and that Lee kid were working together?”

“Why would they do that? That stuck up prick doesn’t work with anyone.”

“As if Neji would ever put up with that loser.”

“I bet you Mina left the second she spotted his stupid, flouncy hair.”

“Why would anyone stay with Renji when they have a shot with Neji Hyuuga?”

“This is an exam, not a dating game!”

On and on the campers go, as argumentative as they were this morning, so focused on the new topic that their disguises aren’t so much as looked at a second time, much less actually questioned.

Naruto Uzumaki, closer to the banked campfire, discretely drops a couple of delayed detonation smoke bombs into the pit, before returning to guard Renji.

They don’t want their unknowing captive waking up too soon.

* * *

The smoke bombs are one minute from detonating–that is, if they detonate at all, they were from the damaged box that Hikari-san let her have because of possible water exposure–when someone says,

“Should we try to find Mina?”

It’s hesitant enough that it almost gets drowned out by other voices, but still worryingly sensible.

“No way, she made her choice!”

“We don’t know if she did make a choice. For all we know, she’s out there unconscious, too, and we’re just blaming her for something she hasn’t done,” the same someone says, reasonable and far closer to the truth than Tetsuki likes.

Better kill that line of thinking.

“If you think that’s the case, go on ahead,” Tetsuki says, “Hell, if you’re that sure about it, I’ll even go with you. But it doesn’t feel right leaving the camp so unprotected, especially if Mina did sell us out.”

“That just means more of us should go!” this frustratingly sensible classmate says, “If Mina and Renji got ambushed just the two of them, then we might need bigger numbers.”

“And leave the camp less defended?” Tetsuki repeats, scrambling, trying to find a reason that isn’t, my fellow infiltrator and I would like to stay behind and continue our planned sabotage, if you please.

“Yeah, Komadori, if you want to go out there and look for that traitor, then go ahead. But don’t go dragging the rest of us into it.”

Oh, thank the gods, an aggressive, selfish classmate to the unknowing rescue.

And just in time, too.

She and Naruto Uzumaki exchange a quick, relieved glance with each other, before taking survey of where the campers are respective to themselves and each other.

Smoke starts to spew out of the fire pit, just a little at first, to draw attention, before erupting in huge billows of smoke.

Tetsuki kicks out at the camper nearest to her, catching him off guard and knocking the wind out of him, and Naruto Uzumaki laughs–disorienting to the campers, but encouraging for her.

This is going to be fun.

* * *

The weird thing is, Tetsuki thinks–ducking under a blind flail and returning with a punch to someone’s nose, cartilage crunching under her fist–she doesn’t like taijutsu.

Sure, she can learn and perform kata well enough and, more often than not, she does win her spars during class… which would imply she’s decent at taijutsu.

But that’s only as compared to her fellow students.

As this particular situation can attest to–a camper grabs at her sleeve, how quaint, she grips their arm and tosses them over her shoulder–the majority of her classmates aren’t exactly impressive.

Naruto Uzumaki laughs and blows a raspberry and she whistles in response, their established back and forth to keep track of each other in the smoke. From the sound of it, he’s a little bit northwest of her and has gotten an armband. She thinks maybe the laughter is genuine, so at least he’s enjoying himself, but she’s also been hearing some grunts of pain from him. No doubt someone’s gotten a couple lucky hits on him, better make this quick:

She crouches down and pats at her fallen opponent, delivering a knock out blow beforehand just to make sure–there, in a pocket, metal now body temperature, the familiar feel of a token. They can check the color later.

She whistles again and clicks her tongue–one token down, one more to go.

Someone gets a hand in her hair and yanks. She stumbles, one arm barely catching her fall, this close she can actually see a vague outline of the other person. Hell, she can see the blue of his sandals.

Komadori, that sensible son of a bitch.

“You’re not Atsushi,” he says, somewhat redundantly. Her henge is still up, but her hair is far longer than her disguise.

“I’m not?” she asks in Atsushi’s voice–or a close enough approximation as she could make with what little of it she heard when they ambushed him earlier–an attempt to baffle him before punching hard at the side of his knee.

It’s not enough to dislocate his kneecap, unfortunately, but it does surprise him enough to make him let go of her hair, allowing her to scramble back to her feet.

He’s not so taken off guard that she can just disappear back into the cover of the smoke–they maybe only have another thirty seconds before it disperses into uselessness–and he attacks her immediately.

She barely dodges a kick and gets a punch to the jaw for her efforts. Frustratingly she recalls that this particular classmate is one of the few who consistently beat her in spars.

Gods damn this sensible son of a bitch.

* * *

Plan A–the plan they’re currently enacting–was mostly Naruto Uzumaki’s idea. She tweaked some parts to make it less risky, but the core of it has more flair for the dramatic than she herself would produce.

Plan B–which she had hoped to use on the possibility that their disguises were seen through–relied on the fact that she could switch seamlessly between the henge disguises and that the idea of Neji Hyuuga ambushing someone would be so intimidating that no one would think to test her in a fight.

The henge is not the problem.

The problem is that she’s already been hit three times in this fight and even if she were to switch into the Neji Hyuuga disguise now, no one would believe it.

Gods, this did not go as well as she had hoped.

They have enough armbands, is the thing. They want the remaining token and she’s not even fighting the right person.

As seconds fly by, the smoke disperses more and more, and any advantage she had in this fight against that sensible son of a bitch Komadori is swiftly dispersing with it.

Naruto Uzumaki’s laughter sounds strained now, too, and she knows they’re in trouble.

She tries to trill a whistle–her signal for retreat–but Komadori gets in a hard jab to her sternum that leaves her breathless.

Her henge shatters.

Well, there goes the whole disguise strategy.

Her opponent hesitates–or perhaps, so used to practice spars, allows her to catch her breath–but that’s just the opening she needs:

She replaces herself with Renji, their somehow still unconscious hostage, and gives herself some space and what little cover remains of the smoke.

There! Now due north of her, Naruto Uzumaki still in disguise, fighting another camper and losing. She lurches in that direction.

Now that she has air again, she finally trills a whistle, reaching out and yanking Naruto Uzumaki out of the way of a punch.

“Let’s go!” she shouts, running and pulling him with her, even as he tries to twist himself away. Thankfully, he’s not trying to stay and fight, but even as he begins to run with his own momentum she keeps her hold on him.

She is vigilant all the way back to the camp, paranoid that someone–especially that sensible son of a bitch–might track them down. But after several feints and a set of bunshin as decoys, she finally lets them spiral back into their camp.

Naruto Uzumaki’s bruises already seem to be healing, or maybe they aren’t nearly as bad as hers which she can feel radiating pain and heat off her skin.

Was it worth it? Attacking the camp directly only got them an additional armband and token each.

But they’ve almost completed Naruto Uzumaki’s impossible objective; surely that’s work a few scrapes.

Still, “You’re getting first watch,” she says, before performing the minimal amount of basic first aid on herself and passing the fuck out.


	5. Chapter 5

Tetsuki dreams of the cold. Not from ice or snow or harsh winds, but an empty kind of cold. A void. As if she were the only person in the world.

It doesn’t make any sense. The Land of Fire is aptly named, temperate even in the night, and before moving in to Ueno General Store she shared a room at Ryokushoku with seven other girls.

But dreams don’t always have to make sense.

It changes. Goes from cold to warm, like standing in a sunbeam, like casual affection and stalwart devotion and other things she’s never experienced before.

Getting adopted was a fairy tale that she has long put behind her, but she imagines maybe this is what it would feel like. Family.

Then her chest aches. No, it stings. No, it shrieks–much harsher and visceral–as if she’s been stabbed through the heart, not just punched in the sternum.

She wakes up, breathing heavily, to a worried Naruto Uzumaki.

“Are you,” he starts, uncertain and hesitant for it, “You were, um.”

At least she’s not crying.

Still, she has to swallow, clear her throat, before her voice can be coaxed out. In those quiet moments, she realizes it’s been longer than an hour and a half, the moon already halfway through its trek across the sky.

“Why didn’t you wake me up earlier? It should be my watch now, you need to recover, too,” Tetsuki wrinkles her nose at herself–she had no idea she was such a busybody.

“I’m fine!” Naruto Uzumaki protests, “And I figured you might need it more. And…”

Now that she looks at him more closely, he does look okay. Only his clothes show any sign of the fight, no bruise or scratch or minor swelling even.

“It’s my fault that you got hurt so much,” he nearly mumbles, chin tucking into the high collar of his hideous jacket, “You deserve more rest,” he finishes.

It’s a sweet thought, if very misguided. Basing resources on who deserves what or who’s at fault for that won’t cut it when they’re real shinobi. It’s harmless now, but there’s no need to encourage bad habits for out on the field.

And so she doesn’t address it.

“Are you a medic?” she asks, instead, because that’s far more pertinent. She knows he got hit a few times–she heard it in the smoke and saw the results while they were retreating–his wounds shouldn’t be at that stage yet. Not when her own are angrily pulsing with every heartbeat.

“No, I just… heal fast,” he mutters. Which is an odd thing to be so ashamed about–a soldier who can heal fast would be valuable–but who is she to judge? It’s disappointing that he can’t help her bruises and scrapes along, but they’re nothing she can’t work through.

“I’ve heard weirder,” Tetsuki shrugs, as a sort of peace offering, “Still, convenient healing or not, you should sleep. Tomorrow’s the last day and we need to get two more tokens.”

* * *

The token they got from the campers isn’t copper, which is fine. That raid was mostly to complete Naruto Uzumaki’s not-so-impossible objective, and while it didn’t go perfectly she’d say it was a success over all.

He’s only missing one more token.

Technically, so is she, but percentage-wise she’s further from completing her objective than he is.

If they end this exam and her objective isn’t complete, she’s going to be so pissed off. And not even at Naruto Uzumaki–or, at least, not mostly–but at herself. She can already predict that awful self-chastisement telling her, see, this is why you should only look out for yourself.

One more day. Hopefully they can prevent that from happening.

* * *

The problem with using people as scapegoats is that, eventually, they’re going to find out about it. If she and Naruto Uzumaki are lucky, Neji Hyuuga’s intimidating ice prince personality will ward that eventuality off until after the exam.

She didn’t really consider how Rock Lee might react, mostly because she doesn’t know anything about him except for hearsay. And, unlike mister cardinal clan himself, Rock Lee doesn’t pose much of a threat.

She’s not expecting him to hear about it during the exam, either–as friendless as Neji Hyuuga for vastly different reasons–and she’s definitely not expecting him to have a positive reaction.

Then again, she didn’t expect to him to walk around, literally asking for people to attack him.

“This is a trap, right?” she asks, glancing over to Naruto Uzumaki for confirmation. Between the two of them, he is the one that would have more experience with Rock Lee.

“Eh…” he says, gaze locked on their classmate on the forest floor below them, “Maybe?”

Trap or not, what’s interesting to Tetsuki is that on Rock Lee’s bicep is an armband in a shade of purple so deep as to be nearly black…

… the same color as the armband in Naruto Uzumaki’s pocket.

* * *

Unlike taijutsu, Tetsuki is pretty fond of genjutsu.

She’s a somewhat malnourished, preteen girl: she’ll never be able to physically overcome anyone. She’s quick, but not so much as to be untouchable. And as her aches and pains lingering from yesterday can attest to, endurance is not the same as recovery.

But none of that matters with genjutsu.

It’s intricate and delicate, requiring intense focus, and it’s true that very few people can sustain a career in genjutsu specialization–especially not without some kind of blood limit–but there’s something about it that appeals to her, nonetheless.

Being able to control the world around her, even just that little bit, even if it is just an illusion. It hurts less to be an outsider, if being inside means not knowing the truth.

And it’s a tool in her arsenal that doesn’t need extensive, supervised training. She has the basics, after that all she needs is her imagination and the right opportunity.

Rock Lee is notorious for his inability to use chakra. There will be no better opportunity.

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki is reluctant to enact her plan, but dutifully circles around the clearing to wait for her signal.

Part of it is that she might not signal him–it’s boring, yes, but if she can talk this out with Rock Lee then she won’t need him to attack from the flank. The other part is that maybe she won’t need him. He’s probably worried that she’ll leave him for Rock Lee which is just ludicrous.

She got punched in the face multiple times, Naruto Uzumaki is not getting rid of her that easily.

But she does think that she can do this on her own. Or, rather, that she should do this on her own.

She has a suspicion about what that familiar armband color might mean. About Rock Lee’s objective and her objective and that of Naruto Uzumaki.

Rock Lee is known to be, if not honorable–because such a thing is pretty impossible in a world of shinobi–then fair. For all that he’s literally asking to be attacked, he won’t attack her until she makes the first move.

Still, just in case, when she goes down to meet him she places a genjutsu on him. It’s a mild one and, under ordinary circumstances, easily breakable; just a small, quick illusion making her seem a meter away from where she actually is.

“I, Rock Lee, will fight anyone who thinks–” he shouts, again, the same speech on loop to the faceless forest of Training Ground 53. She wonders if anyone else has actually taken him on it.

“Hey,” she interrupts, after leaping down in front of him, “I have a question about your objective,” she says.

His gaze fixes on the nonexistent figure a meter away and the deep purple armband on its bicep.

* * *

Every teacher at the Academy has an assistant.

Peacetime glut, Hikari-san says with a self-deprecating tone–after all, her store, too, can only exist because there is no war. If there were, it’d be absorbed into Intel, resources to be parceled out by the quartermaster general.

But the role of Academy teaching assistant has multiple purposes: training new teachers, off-field positions for chuunin on medical leave, increasing protections around Konoha’s vulnerable future soldiers, and on and on it goes.

Yanagi-sensei’s assistant is a chuunin on floating rotations who has taken the year off to train and boost his chances for promotion. Hinoura-sensei doesn’t really seem to care much for the job, but he’s not dismissive of Yanagi-sensei and the other Academy teachers the way she’s heard other field chuunin be, the way Hikari-san sometimes gets before she checks herself.

He doesn’t like Naruto Uzumaki, but nobody seems to like Naruto Uzumaki.

Before the exam started, Yanagi-sensei was the one distributing armbands and tokens.

The objective cards are in Hinoura-sensei’s handwriting.

Rock Lee’s card has a two prong objective:

The first is to collect the token matching his deep purple armband.

The second is to protect his copper token.

Tetsuki is pretty sure she knows what Naruto Uzumaki’s objective should have been.

* * *

Regardless of curiosity and conspiracies, they are still in an exam and Rock Lee does have the token she needs. Their objectives are mutually exclusive: there is no compromise to be made here.

“Thanks,” she says to Rock Lee, whose eyes are already beginning to close, “and sorry about this.”

It’s not hard to deepen the genjutsu–especially against someone who can’t fight back–make it spread, her chakra overwhelming his senses, until he falls asleep. He crumples to the ground.

After a paranoid moment to make sure he isn’t just faking it, she frisks him for the copper token.

Naruto Uzumaki drops down to join her, approaching with a mixed expression on his face. Confused and relieved that they aren’t adding Rock Lee to their alliance–or that she’s not replacing him with Rock Lee. “What was all that about?” he asks.

“Just… figuring something out,” she says, somehow exhausted. It has nothing to do with the genjutsu.

* * *

Even with their frantic search during the remaining daylight hours, they don't find a fifth token for Naruto Uzumaki.

Part of it is due to the fact that any token holder who has lasted to the third day knows what they're doing--they've holed up and won't be budged until the exam is finally over--the other part is because there's a manhunt going on.

A mob, loud and angry and massive, almost a dozen strong and every time even a hint of it reaches her ears, Tetsuki makes the two of them hide.

Naruto Uzumaki bristles at her caution, but doesn't break off on his own. The bruises on her face still ache. She wonders: if she healed as fast as he did, would she be reckless, too?

Then again, maybe because her objective is already completed, she's not as determined. She doesn't think so--she does want to help him still, if she didn't, she'd have left him immediately after getting the copper token from Rock Lee--but it's true she has less incentive. She's less desperate.

Just as angry, though. Perhaps more so. It crackles and buzzes in her veins impotently, unable to be expressed.

Dusk of the past two days had been a quieting thing, everyone going to their separate camps and settling down for the evening. Tonight is completely different. Tonight, their classmates are energized: armband holders aggressive, the mob still out for their blood.

She's tempted to just wait it out, let the gamut of traps take care of them and run out their time.

Those who don't complete their objective in the next few hours will fail.

Naruto Uzumaki included.

She sighs--well, it's not as if she was planning on sleeping tonight, anyway.

"I have another idea," she admits, reluctantly, "but it's going to be... tricky."

If she's learned anything about him in the past two days, that's exactly what he wants to hear.


	6. Chapter 6

They’re running, frantic and more than just a little bit blind.

They abandon their camp, scavenging some of the traps for weapons and wire–that shit’s expensive–but not much. Their pockets and pouches stuffed with their stolen armbands and tokens, objective cards crumpled along with them.

The problem is, they’re running out of time. Then again that’s not really a problem, that’s just a fact of life, time marches forward and there’s nothing that can stop it.

If she had the full three days she would be more confident in this idea. Well, Tetsuki wouldn’t even be thinking about this if she had the full three days, now would she?

An uncomfortable amount of this plan relies on luck. Which. Um. Orphans.

Enough said.

Another good chunk of it then depends on how convincing she and Naruto Uzumaki can be without resorting to violence or genjutsu, and for the final dish of this impossibility feast: Neji Hyuuga has to be willing to put up with their plebeian selves until sunrise.

Or, at least, until the angry mob of their former victims gets scared off and accept failure.

Hm, listed out like that, Tetsuki’s not sure anyone could pull it off.

But Naruto Uzumaki seems optimistic enough to give it a shot, so why not?

First thing’s first: find the best Byakugan user in generations in a forest at night when, presumably, he doesn’t want to be found, before they get caught.

* * *

Tetsuki knows both less and more about Neji Hyuuga than she’d like:

Less because the Hyuuga clan isn’t exactly going around airing out their weaknesses for some random street urchin to hear.

More because, well, not even she’s so isolated from her classmates that she doesn’t pick up some of the rumors going around their resident prodigy. Unfortunately, it’s nothing particularly useful and more to do with… ugh… what kind of girl he may or may not like?

She’d much rather know his training regimen than his astrological sign and blood type and favorite food (Cancer, O, and herring soba respectively) but them’s the breaks.

Even without hearsay, Tetsuki knows that if a Hyuuga doesn’t want to be found–much less the best Byakugan user in generations–then they won’t.

That being said, she also knows that most Hyuuga are prideful, what with being the most powerful cardinal clan now, and that the prouder they are the more reckless they get when bored.

She imagines that, unlike her and Naruto Uzumaki’s experience, the past sixty odd hours or so have been excruciatingly boring for Neji Hyuuga. Especially if his objective is what she thinks it is.

“Give me your armband,” she hisses at Naruto Uzumaki, as they approach what must be Neji Hyuuga’s chosen space for the exam. It’s not an open clearing turned into a civilian level campsite, but it’s definitely not the overly paranoid and defended nook in some tree roots like theirs was.

Not that Neji Hyuuga would need much in the way of traps, no one would dare attack him.

Naruto Uzumaki pulls out the wrinkled and crumpled mass of cloth from his pouch, looking at her in blatant confusion.

“Your original one,” she clarifies, pulling out the dark purple armband she got from Rock Lee, “the one that looks just like this.”

Why not bring a little excitement Neji Hyuuga’s way?

* * *

She’ll admit, later, that she probably developed tunnel vision trying to find Neji Hyuuga while also avoiding the angry mob. She gets into the rhythm of a task–even if this particular one is frenetic and stressful–and tends to forget her surroundings.

Luckily, Naruto Uzumaki is there to shove her out of the way of a barrage of kunai. They thunk into the tree beyond her.

As Tetsuki regains her bearings, she notices they’re in the perfect outline of her body.

TenTen?

A different blur, much larger and closer, drops down in her peripheral, and this time it’s her own hasty reflexes that have her dodge out of the way of a jab glowing with chakra.

Jyuuken.

Well, they found him…

… hooray?

Neji Hyuuga is not their year’s highest ranked student for no reason and for all that Tetsuki is fast, no one is as fast as him.

In short order her entire right arm is numb and absolutely useless, swinging around and throwing off her balance.

Any thoughts to negotiate a truce flies from her head. In the face of such overwhelming power only one concept remains: survive.

She tries to fight back, he defends easily. She tries to retreat, he follows unerringly. She tries to hold off his stupidly undefeatable attacks, she fails miserably.

And maybe if it were just Tetsuki by herself, that’d be it. But she’s not alone.

“Wait! Hold on you bastard,” Naruto Uzumaki says, brash and somehow endearing now, “We’re not here to fight you!” he says even as he throws a punch, trying to take the pressure off her.

He means well. She does appreciate the effort. Unfortunately, two against one when that one is Neji Hyuuga doesn’t make much of a difference.

But it jolts her out of her hindbrain panic, and she still has use of one of her hands: Tetsuki grabs the two purple armbands and throws them to the ground between them, almost like a gauntlet.

Neji Hyuuga doesn’t look down–Byakugan activated, he doesn’t need to–but he pauses for a moment, almost curious, which gives her and Naruto Uzumaki a moment to breathe.

“We don’t want your token,” Tetsuki says, slowly, still functional arm raised slightly to show no harm, “Or TenTen’s,” she adds, remembering the kunai.

Naruto Uzumaki makes an indignant noise, high in the back of his throat, and she shoots him a look. Tetsuki hasn’t forgotten he still needs another token, but they can’t get it from Neji Hyuuga and she’s not going to let him take it from TenTen (even if he could–he’s not as terrible as he seems in the classroom, but she’d put her nonexistent money on TenTen any day).

Speaking of TenTen, another figure peers out from the foliage, a brace of kunai at the ready between her fingers.

“… we’d like your help with something.”

* * *

TenTen is somewhat skeptical, approaching with both hands on her kunai–Tetsuki doesn’t take it personally, she knows kunai are more akin to comfort objects than weapons to TenTen–until she reads the crumpled up objective cards:

At Tetsuki’s, she blinks curiously. At Naruto Uzumaki’s, her jaw tightens.

Tetsuki can’t help but to smile at that.

Even if they can’t convince Neji Hyuuga to help, she certainly wouldn’t mind having an expert in ranged weaponry on their side. And it’s nice knowing that TenTen is just as pissed off as she is–their personalities may be different, but their backgrounds may as well be identical.

On the streets, no one gets what they want. But that doesn’t mean they can’t get even.

“Assurance that we’re not here for your tokens,” Tetsuki says, gesturing to the pair of dark purple armbands still on the ground. “Not that we would have been able to get them anyway,” she adds after a slight pause, jerking her shoulder, her chakra-blocked arm swinging almost grotesquely.

“If your fate is to fight half the class then I’m not going to interfere,” Neji Hyuuga states, Byakugan deactivated no doubt due to how nonthreatening she and Naruto Uzumaki are compared to him.

TenTen shoots a glare at him, but stays silent.

Tetsuki can feel her heart crawl into her throat, though she doesn’t know why. This isn’t exactly a surprising outcome.

She doesn’t know what to say.

“You’ve interfered already, asshole,” Naruto Uzumaki says, lifting up Tetsuki’s right arm–so numb she didn’t even feel him grab it. “You could just say you’re too scared to fight. You think you’re great ‘cause you get shit just handed to you in your fancy clan and the teachers kiss your ass? We don’t need help from a stuck up coward like you!”

Tetsuki stares at him in open shock. In her peripheral vision, she can see TenTen do the same.

You can’t just say stuff like that to a clan member’s face!

But maybe having a last name gives him some kind understanding because instead of walking away, figurative bridge burned between them, Neji Hyuuga’s hands dart out in quick succession.

And suddenly Tetsuki can feel the grip of Naruto Uzumaki’s hand around her wrist… before a flood of static sweeps across her nerves, chakra rushing back into her arm without the Jyuuken blocks to hold it back. She hisses in pain.

“There’s not enough time for me to explain how wrong you are,” Neji Hyuuga says, briefly reaching up for the wraps around his forehead before deciding against it.

There is a story there, an open secret of Konoha–the Hyuuga clan is hiding something, but only the upper echelons know what. Even if Neji Hyuuga were the kind of person to share his burden with others, they are barely acquaintances, much less friends.

Maybe in the future.

Naruto Uzumaki twitches, head tilting one way then the other as if in confusion or–more likely, as Tetsuki picks up the sounds herself–in concentration.

Neji Hyuuga is right, there’s not enough time:

The mob is coming.

* * *

In the orphanage, family is an impossible dream. Adoption an unheard of miracle, passed down as whispers from the older children to the younger in the dark of the night. The closest thing to bedtime stories they get.

But a team is more attainable and nearly as good–better, if you believe the propaganda. Good teammates will be in your thoughts and in your heart, have your back and your trust.

Together, the ideal team functions seamlessly, different parts of a greater whole. Together, the ideal team can easily defeat an army ten times their size.

They are not an ideal team.

They are not even a team.

Frankly, in all the chaos, it’s hard to tell if they’re on the same side.

Tetsuki jerks backward to avoid a hit, only to duck and get knee to the nose while avoiding a set of shuriken from the treetops. They embed themselves perfectly into her opponent’s calf–he howls in pain and she definitely takes the opportunity kick out at his other leg, bringing him down completely–but they could have easily stuck into her shoulder instead.

TenTen’s aim is perfect, but it doesn’t account for allies getting her way.

Naruto Uzumaki learned this the hard way, kunai sticking out of his shoulder until he pulled it out and used it for himself.

The both of them are absolutely filthy by this point: dirt and blood, a fair share of it their own, staining their clothes. Neji Hyuuga doesn’t have this problem–a neat pile of paralyzed bodies clustered at his feet.

There’s so much going on–so many people and weapons and other metallic knickknacks, zippers and buttons and jewelry–that Tetsuki can’t tell if any of them have tokens on them. She doesn’t have the time to more thoroughly search them, either, not when for every opponent she takes down another two pop up.

It’s no longer just the mob they’re fighting at this point–the ruckus of large scale battle attracting the more active and eager of their classmates. Only the light of the moon and the occasional flash bang illuminates the space, with clashing kunai and the scent of blood in the air, it really is like a true shinobi battle.

At this point, it barely has anything to do with the exam, hidden grudges bubbling up easily without adult supervision. Tetsuki herself is not entirely immune to the fever of battle:

“Hey you,” she says to the sensible son of a bitch Komadori. All the warning she provides before punching him right in his surprised face. But tit for tat is not the way of shinobi, grudges are not resolved by simply balancing the equation, and so what should have been a simple surprise hit becomes a prolonged fight.

This time Tetsuki uses everything she has, doesn’t limit herself or conserve energy for running away. Genjutsu falls over him in layers, shrouding his senses, but his memory and practiced motions pull him through, chakra flaring to throw off her efforts. She responds feral, brutal, and so does he.

They are still fighting when TenTen runs out of weapons, the clearing liberally sprinkled with her efforts, and she has to drop into the fray herself. They are still fighting when Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuuga stumble into each other–the latter’s Byakugan deactivated for some reason–and are forced to literally fight back to back. They are still fighting when the sun rises, sky blazing orange, and the exam officially ends.

They are fighting up until Yanagi-sensei and Hinoura-sensei bodily pull them apart, well-rested adult selves easily lifting their exhausted child bodies, and it’s as if she suddenly wakes up.

Her entire body throbs furiously, painfully, adrenaline wearing off and leaving her with the consequences of her actions. She squirms in Yanagi-sensei’s hold to search for Naruto Uzumaki, to meet his eyes and apologize because–she forgot about the exam. Forgot about his objective and the token. Forgot about him.

Failed him.


End file.
